Sadly, the #Madeleine ship didn’t reach Gaza’s shores — but it reached our hearts here in #gaza from the very moment it set sail.

Twelve brave activists sailed to break the siege.

The ship didn’t just carry aid — it carried a voice that pushed global media to speak again about Gaza’s pain after a long, deafening silence.

These heroes did what governments could not. They reminded the world that Gaza is not alone — and that a living conscience can still sail.
#FreedomFlotilla #Madleen

The tipping point for me deciding that we should abolish scientific journals was my first experiences as an editor. It made me feel both scientifically and morally uncomfortable to be making what I felt were necessarily ill informed decisions that affected scientific progress and people's careers.

I don't think it's possible to be knowledgeable enough to quickly read a paper and understand its potential significance. But the entire system rests on this foundation.

I could also see that if I kept doing it, I'd gain confidence and it would start to feel normal, even though it was still wrong.

So instead I decided to quit those roles, and campaign for an end to scientific journals and help build new systems without the many flaws of journals.

I do believe in the value of scientific expertise, of course, but I don't think we can predict what will turn out to be important or valuable in the future. Too much of scientific culture and our institutions are based on what seems to me the palpably false assumption that we can.

Ever heard of vibe coding?
It’s when the code looks fine, tests pass, vibes are good - so it goes to production. Even if it’s wide open to SQL injection.

I’ve seen it happen.
AI wrote it. Devs trusted it. Management loved it.
Nobody understood it.

We’re trading skill for speed.
And that’s how we lose our freedom.

Vibe Coding Will Rob Us of Our Freedom: https://it-notes.dragas.net/2025/06/05/vibe-coding-will-rob-us-of-our-freedom/

EDIT: Given the trends and the comments, I wrote something off the cuff about it: https://my-notes.dragas.net/2025/06/05/when-we-become-cheerleaders-for-our-own-demise/

#ITNotes #ai #coding #data #ownyourdata #programming #IT #SysAdmin

Unless you’re a Nobel laureate, the brain drain will be away from science and not to other countries.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/03/us/trump-federal-spending-grants-scientists-leaving.html?unlocked_article_code=1.ME8.sh9q.qy7jX0S1ZrBa&smid=url-share

After two and a half years of building this community, I've made the decision that it's time to shut down Astrodon.social.

Since 2022, around 4,000 users have registered on astrodon.social. However, fewer than 10% of those users are active each month, and fewer than 1% post regularly. Because of the way Mastodon works, the data for every one of the those users, even the inactive ones, has to be kept forever and keeps on growing. There's no way to remove posts or archive them out of the database, and running a large database gets very expensive.

Running Astrodon costs more than €300/month, which means that the costs of running the server are primarily going toward servicing fewer than 50 active users, the most active of whom are organisations. Even with donations, Astrodon has now cost me more than €5000 to run.

While I’ve considered the option of turning Astrodon into a commercial service or creating a nonprofit, I’m reluctant to go down that route. Managing a business comes with a host of overhead tasks like tax reporting and navigating different tax regimes due to our global user base, which is something I want to avoid. My goal has always been to create a free and open space, but the reality is that the free part isn't sustainable.

I'm not shutting down Astrodon immediately. I want to give everyone ample time—likely over the next two to three months—to find alternative service providers and transition smoothly. This isn't a decision I'm making lightly, and I appreciate your understanding and support as we navigate this transition. If you have any questions, concerns, or suggestions, please feel free to reach out to me directly through DMs.

If you think getting past a reviewer in something PNAS is hard, I got one for you that might be harder! Frontiers for Young Minds, where the reviewer can be a literal 10 years old.
If you're a science educator, I highly recommend checking out this journal. A lot of eye-level, high-quality texts, written by scientists, reviewed by kids.
#ScieneEducation

https://kids.frontiersin.org/

Tiens, l’ #Insee a profité du pont de l’Ascension pour updater ses données sur les inscriptions sur les listes électorales. Et c’est majeur : pour la 1ère fois en France, les plus de 50 ans sont désormais majoritaires dans le corps électoral. Ils représentent 52% de la population en âge de voter, 3x plus que les moins de 30 ans. Plus fou encore, les plus de 60 ans pèsent à eux seuls plus que l’ensemble des 18-40 ans.

https://www.lefigaro.fr/politique/presidentielle-les-plus-de-50-ans-desormais-majoritaires-au-sein-du-corps-electoral-20250527